A newspaper publisher in northern Minnesota has been awarded the John R. Finnegan Freedom of Information award for pursuing a lengthy court battle that disclosed a gap in state data practices law.

Marshall Helmberger, publisher of Timberjay Newspapers, received the award for mounting a legal challenge against the St. Louis County school district. The 2 1/2-year case revealed a gap in state law that allows government contractors to avoid providing information under the Minnesota Data Practices Act.

The case reached the Minnesota Supreme Court, which ruled in November that such contractors need not disclose information under the Data Practices Act unless their contracts include specific language stating they are subject to the law.

Several state legislators — including Sen. Kari Dziedzic, DFL-Minneapolis, and Rep. Mary Liz Holberg, R-Lakeville — have introduced bills to address the gap in the law. Dziedzic’s bill will be heard in the Senate Judiciary Commitee at noon Tuesday.

The Finnegan award is an annual honor given by the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information since 1989, to those showing “commitment to the idea that a popular and democratic government can never realize the aspirations of the founding fathers without the participation of an informed electorate.”

It is named after John R. Finnegan Sr., a former Pioneer Press editor who died in 2012.

“Private companies should know and expect that when they are accepting the public’s money that citizens have a right to know how and why that money is being spent,” coalition chair Gary Hill said of Helmberger’s award.

Timberjay Newspapers has publications in Tower-Soudan, Ely and Cook-Orr.

The coalition also recognized Robert Shaw, former executive director for the Minnesota Newspaper Association, and Rodgers Adams, formerly of the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, with Lifetime Achievement Awards for “shaping how the Data Practices Act was originally adopted and administered.”

The awards will be presented at noon Friday, March 14, at Minneapolis Central Library’s Pohlad Hall, 300 Nicollet Mall.

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in News

MONTREAT, N.C. (AP) — The Rev. Billy Graham, who transformed American religious life through his preaching and activism, becoming a counselor to presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history, died Wednesday. He was 99.

The Crosswinds school building in Woodbury could reopen as a science-focused magnet school with St. Paul Public Schools as its new owner. The St. Paul school board voted 5-2 on Tuesday night to buy the building from the state for $15.3 million. The deal closes Wednesday morning. The St. Paul district was a member of the cooperative that built Crosswinds...

It may have begun as a rumor, but now it’s officially a controversy. Members of the District 833 American Indian Parent Committee urged the South Washington County School Board last week to remove an Indian head mosaic at Park High School. The artwork was installed in 1965 in the east part of the main hallway near the school gym. They...

The parent group of Minnesota Public Radio is opening an innovation center — a testing lab and co-working space for startup ventures — in downtown St. Paul’s former Ecolab Tower on Wabasha Street. American Public Media plans to open the Glen Nelson Center in the recently renovated Osborn370 building this summer. Backed by philanthropic foundations, the center will invest in...

Sun Country Airlines is cutting 350 workers from its ground service operations at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The Eagan-based company told employees Tuesday it will contract those jobs out to Global Aviation Services Inc. Executives say the move will make Sun County more efficient. Layoffs begin immediately, with workers able to reapply for positions with Global Aviation as soon as...

The late Spiro Pina made Olympic history in 1994 when he became the first man to compete in luge for Greece. Pina, a native of St. Paul and a dual citizen of Greece and the U.S., returned to the Winter Olympics four years later, carrying the flag for Greece in Nagano, Japan. He placed 24th both years. Now his Olympic sled,...